This Scientific American article describes their elegant experiment to see how people react when something “feels??? difficult. They presented two different groups of college students with printed instructions for a regular exercise routine. While the wording was the same in both sets of instructions, one group received instructions printed in a hard-to-read Brush font (a font that looks like brush strokes) while the other group received instructions printed in good ol’ fashioned Arial.
The results were crystal clear. People who received Arial instructions were more enthusiastic about the exercise routine than the Brush font folks, and predicted it would be much easier. The psychologists tried the experiment again using a sushi roll recipe and saw similar results.
We've had a number of discussions about our paperworks format and how it's perceived by viewers. When talking to people, they often mention accessibility - that the format gives them a feeling like "Oh, I can get this, it's not going over my head." Could it be that one reason people like our videos is that their perception of difficulty, based on the simple drawings, makes them more likely to keep watching and act on the ideas?